Avicii reveals what really happened on his disastrous 2013 Australian tour

In 2013, Swedish superstar Avicii was locked in as a headliner for Future Music Festival, alongside acts like The Prodigy, Boys Noize, and Zeds Dead.

But a few days before he was due to take the stage at the festival’s first leg in Brisbane, organisers announced that the ‘Levels’ hitmaker would no longer be performing in the city or at the following event in Perth. FMF cited “stomach-related issues”, for which Avicii was hospitalised as soon as he landed in the country.

Tim Bergling was also forced to cancel his lone Brisbane sideshow at The Met the following weekend, due to the severe ongoing illness. Bergling completed his Future shows in Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, but his health issues continued to dog him — he cancelled his closing set at Ultra Music Festival a year later, then subsequently scrapped all of this remaining shows.

Bergling has now shared intimate and confronting footage of just what happened behind-the-scenes of that fateful Australian tour, which makes up a short part of his just-released documentary True Stories.

The 3-minute clip sees Bergling in a hospital bed, being advised by doctors in Brisbane that his gallbladder would have to be removed — and then a day later being asked by his tour manager about doing interviews for Future Music, all the while looking like he could pass out at any moment. It’s a sobering watch.

Bergling — who retired from touring in 2016 — has spoken at length about his struggles with the mental and physical pressure of DJing, telling inthemix in 2013 that his constant drinking and partying had landed him in hospital back in 2012.

He’s since made a comeback to dance music, releasing his Avīci (01) EP two months ago. He currently has no plans to return to the road.